to what degree could lightning network improve speed?

[Lucas Riley]

Hi , not much out there in terms of transactions per second potential for the lightning network. I know it depends on adoption but lets say 50% of nodes open payment channels. Are we talking visa levels or would it exceed even that

[MsDos]

If I understand it right it is in milliseconds, however, the main issue are transaction fees which should be almost zero. I am not sure LN will solve that.

[achow101]

The Lightning Network can theoretically allow for infinite number of transactions per second.

however, the main issue are transaction fees which should be almost zero. I am not sure LN will solve that.

The fees for transactions made over the Lightning Network will be near 0.

[hugeblack]

Lightning Network (second layer) based on the idea of creating a payment channel(Bidirectional) by concluding a funding transaction to the relevant blockchain.
So what happens is an update of the values inside the channel without broadcasting it to the blockchain. after the completion of transactions, the process of closing the channel is broadcasting it to the blockchain.

How long does it take to update values within a two-party channel?

[bob123]

How long does it take to update values within a two-party channel?

Theoretically: Just as long as it takes for the packets to travel through the network + the time it needs to be processed by the processors.
Since there is no need to wait for a block being mined there shouldn't be any other factors which have an influence.

[danniwide1234]

 Lightning Network will surely go a long way to improve speed. When it first came to light it hosted its first successful payments, with developers spending bitcoin to purchase articles on Y'alls, a micropayment blogging site built for demonstration purposes by programmer called Alex Bosworth. I have been reading about it  and I know a guy, Bosworth separately used the network to pay a phone bill with his own bitcoin. As he tweeted in late December, “Speed: Instant. Fee: Zero. Future: Almost Here.”  Blockstream has also launched an ecommerce site selling t-shirts and stickers that only accepts Lightning payments. I see a great prospect for Lightning network

[s2]

LN can be complex to explain as a simple 'it takes X seconds to do' but split it into 3 parts might be a fairer representation...

Setting up a LN connection. 
This can take hours (e.g. 6 blocks confirmations) but best think of it as applying for a debit card, still far faster than obtaining your debit card and only needs to be done once to get into the LN network.  The connection is reused for all LN transactions later.


A normal LN payment.
LN is based on simply sending small packets of data between LN nodes, the speed this happens per tx is in order of milliseconds, far faster than credit/debit cards can process.
The fees to be charged depend on what the nodes charge, currently this is pretty much $0.00 since everyone running a node wants it to just work.  In time it will be a race to the bottom on having the lowest fees so your node gets used but charging sufficiently that it covers your costs for running the HW.. much like mining is a zero sum game the fees in LN has the same sort of game theory but keeps the fees price low just like mining keeps hash rate high enough to prevent an easy attack.

A LN channel fails
This requires 1 block to confirm to get your bitcoin back so the typcial 10min wait.  This should not normally be required but should someone try to cheat you (so you get all their funds) or your connection fails it will cause this closing the channel.


Overall LN gives VASTLY more tx/second than Visa/MC/Paypal all put together. since it is direct P2P and near instant.  It's like comparing the speed of a supercomputer to all the computing power around the world.  Yes the supercomputer is fast but the global computing power networked will always eclipse any single machine.


There are however issues to overcome.

* Requires bitcoin to get on the network in the first place.
* It's hard to use currently
* Can't use it offline
* It's unproven and not hardened yet, this will take time for people to trust and adopt.
* Using backups are financially dangerous in LN

That all said I think all of these can be mitigated/fixed over time so the future is looking pretty awesome.

[saturn.network]

I mean it is hard to really tell exactly how fast it will improve the speed but once this technology is operating at full capacity it will drastically improve blockchain contention and will eliminate the problem of scaling the blockchain. And cross-chain payment networks will allow users to seamlessly send money and convert between different denominations, while enabling network providers to reduce costs by securing their transactions on the blockchain with the lowest fees.

If anyone still has any doubts about what the lightning network is, I recommend this article: https://rados.io/what-is-the-lightning-network/

[Kakmakr]

I think the most important thing that the Lightning Network does is to take most of the micro transactions to a second layer solution that are off-chain. The most spamming of the network is done with micro transactions and if you can shift that volume of transactions to a off-chain solution, then you have won most of the battles to keep the network uncongested.

These off-chain tx's also have no influence on the size of the Blockchain and that is one of the biggest advantages I see for the LN. Keep the Blockchain small and more people will be able to run full nodes. <This in turn, increase decentralization>

Smaller Blockchain = faster download of the whole Blockchain for new nodes.